what do I know

As we were walking around the historic district in St. Augustine, the aromas from the candy stores and ice cream shops are pretty intoxicating. We set out on a goal to find a peanut encrusted caramel apple as well as some mint chocolate chip ice cream in one of those fresh waffle cones. We stopped by a few stores but the prices were pretty high, averaging ~$8 per item. That was a little high for us so we kept hunting and found Kilwin’s Chocolates. As you look into the windows you can see people making the waffle cones and there are tables for candy making (maybe in the mornings?). The shop is small but the line was out the door; if there one thing I’ve come to trust when I travel is to look for where the most people are eating, usually you’ll end up with some form of “good eats” (hopefully Alton Brown won’t sue me for using that). We got a huge caramel green apple covered in chopped peanuts (~$6) and a fresh waffle cone filled with mint chocolate chunk ice cream (~$4). Considering what you pay at places like Cold Stone, we figured it was a good compromise on price. The sweets turned out great too, so it was a nice treat for the afternoon. I know Kilwin’s is a national chain, and there are a couple in the historic district, but we really enjoyed it. Guess I have to break my rules every now and then, forgive me :’(

Kilwin’s Chocolates is located at 140 St. George Street, St. Augustine, Florida.

Last weekend, we went up to St. Augustine to visit some family and see the historic district. We had a great time and when lunch time came around we were starved. My brother said he had heard of a good pizza place on St. George Street called Pizza Time, so we decided to give it a shot. Most of the restaurants in the area seemed to be geared towards tourists, so our hope was that Pizza Time would be different.

I have to give it to the owner of Pizza Time, he’s a smart business man. The shop is small and people are routed in through the front door to stand directly in line in front of prepared pizzas, stromboli’s, calzones, and garlic knots. The food is presented nicely (and looks appetizing) and the shop is lined in murals and pictures advertising its Brooklyn, New York style of food. As you order you wait in line for your food to be heated unless you get a whole pie, in which they’ll bring it to your table. By the time your food is ready and you pay, you find out they accept cash ONLY, but no fears, there is an ATM right next to the cash register for your convenience. This is an all to common tactic for tourist heavy establishments in Florida no matter the theme, the owner gets a kickback as well as the ATM company. We ordered a slice of cheese (~$2.50), a sausage parmigiana roll (~$5) which came with a side of sauce, and a couple of fountain drinks (~$2 each). The slice was sizable, really greasy, and by no means the New York style pizza I’ve come to know; someone should tell them that just because you can make a big pizza, it doesn’t make it authentic. The sausage roll didn’t have much sausage in it, but for the price didn’t taste that bad. The sauce was flavorful but really salty, so I didn’t find myself using it much. We also tried the garlic knots, but as with everything else, they failed to stand out.

As we were leaving, we noticed the man we saw on our way in (that told us “Oh this place has the best pizza in all of town”) was getting free slices from the manager. He was also standing outside (at least as long as we were there) telling other people Pizza Time had the best pizza he’d ever eaten. Hmm … I’ll let you draw your own conclusion, but props to whoever came up with that idea. In any case, Pizza Time was what you can expect from your typical touristy pizza place. Nothing stands out and you have to be conscience that you have enough cash on you to eat. That being said, the staff was courteous and we didn’t have trouble getting a table. I’d give the experience a “meh”.

Pizza Time is located at 124 St. George Street, St. Augustine, Florida.

When Mediterranean food comes to mind, we are fortunate enough in Suntree to have quite a few places within a few minutes drive. There’s Niki’s, Grecian Garden, Yanni’s Deli, and my new favorite Cedar’s Cafe. Cedar’s advertises itself as a Mediterranean and Lebanese restaurant, but for those who are more familiar with Greek cuisine you should still feel comfortable. Cedar’s is about a 10 table restaurant with indoor/outdoor seating and a great local vibe. The first thing that I noticed when looking at the menu (because I’m cheap) was that they are very reasonably priced. This of course leads to the question, how’s the food and the service? Well no worries, Cedar’s does not disappoint.

A large group of us went out to lunch and called ahead to be safe. Without any problems, we were accommodated and there were no questions when we asked to split the check. I started with a small order of the vegetable grape leaves (~$3) and then ordered the gyro wrap (~$6) for my lunch. The grape leaves came out very quickly, there were 3 in the small order, and were delicious. The grape leaves themselves were nice and thin and the taste wasn’t overpowering at all. They were stuffed with rice and bigger than I expected, so I was starting to fill up by the time my sandwich arrived. Recently I’ve been ordering gyro’s at bars or local sandwich shops, but all you get is the “out of the bag onto the grill” experience. Cedar’s helped to remind me what a gyro should taste like. The gyro wrap came with lettuce, tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce with thin slices of meat. The meat tasted like a mixture of pork and lamb meat prepared on the traditional roasting spit. I would have liked to have shredded cabbage instead lettuce, but the sandwich was great none the less. When the time for dessert came, we were all pretty stuffed, but once we saw the baklava we loosened our belts. There are about 4-5 variations that they make fresh daily and, wow, I will be stopping by more often just for the dessert. I got the roll as well as the pistachio stuffed pieces (~$1.50) and it was some of the best baklava I’ve ever eaten. If you just want to stop by for something sweet, the baklava is definitely worth the trip.

Overall the experience at Cedar’s was great and I feel like I finally have a reliable Mediterranean restaurant to put into the rotation. Did I mention the baklava?

Cedar’s Cafe is located in the Publix Plaza at the corner of Post Road and Wickham Road at 4100 North Wickham Rd, Melbourne, FL 32935.

Ok, I need help. I’ve been able to discover the coolness that is getQualifiedClassName() and getDefinitionByName() and describeType() when it comes to working with introspection/reflection in ActionScript 3. I am stuck however. I want to get a hold of all the class names available in the compiled Flash movie at runtime. I’m writing a library that will look for custom metadata on classes and associate functionality with the classes (or possibly objects) if they are annotated in a specific way. Right now, short of asking for a list of those classes from the developer, I don’t know of a way to build a bootstrap function/class that will introspection into the Flash movie and get me a list of them. I was thinking maybe if I could find a way to programmatically access the manifest file that would work, but again I can’t find a way to do that.

Does anyone know how to do this or am I doomed to introspecting on objects and programmer declared references rather than classes?

UPDATE: I found a feature request in the Flex 3 JIRA database. Basically it’s not in Flex yet, nor is it supported by the Flash movie, but 4 people have voted for the feature thus far. That being said, please vote for this feature so we can get one of the final pieces to reflection built into Flex. BTW - If anyone wants questions answered with regards to Flex, check out the flexcoders mailing list over on Yahoo. Everyone probably knows about it but I’m slow.

Recently some friends of ours have been raving about this place beach side that has amazing shaved ice. My first reaction was, “Um, it’s ice that has been shaved into small pieces with juice … wow, sounds great.” Let me tell you, I am idiot for ever doubting them. The place they spoke of is Oasis Shaved Ice. Oasis opened up around last October and slowly has been gaining popularity with the locals. Oasis has a menu of over 20 flavors of shaved ice, each of which can be topped with condense milk (a snow-cap), topped with melted marshmallows (frost it) or have a scoop of ice cream thrown in before hand (stuff it). Flavors range from tropical fruits to sweet extracts to cake-based (that’s right) and can be served in 4 possible sizes, ranging from kids to large. Oasis also offers a variety of coffees and sodas for those, who for some reason, came to a shaved ice stand for something other than shaved ice.

My wife and I drove out on a Sunday afternoon and found cars in the drive-thru as well as one free space in the, all be it small, parking lot. Oasis instantly gave us that great beach side vibe that we’ve come to expect from the area. After about 10 minutes pouring over the choices, we went with a medium, half and half, blue raspberry and pina colada, and a medium Mardi Gras King Cake ($2.50 each). We had heard the cake flavors really tasted like cake but how would it taste in shaved ice? We weren’t disappointed. The pina colada tasted like fresh coconut and the blue raspberry didn’t taste like candy but raspberries. The Mardi Gras flavor was just like biting into a king cake; so much so, that it even came with a little plastic baby at the bottom.

It’s not hard to guess that we had a good experience, but here’s the kicker. While we eating, the woman working counter (she may have been the owner) drove away, drove back, walked up to us and asked, “I know this was your first time visiting, what did you think?” Wow, talk about the personal touch. This is why I love local businesses and will always patronize them. It looks like they can even take the business on the road with their own refrigerated truck. If you haven’t been by Oasis Shaved Ice, then do yourself a favor and go. Not only are you in for a refreshing treat, but it’s something you don’t get everyday with a great side of service.

Oasis Shaved Ice is located about a quarter-mile south of the Pineda Causeway on A1A in Satellite Beach, FL.

NOTE: Oasis Shaved Ice doesn’t take debit/credit cards, so make sure you bring CASH. Also, since this post was written we’ve tried Strawberry Cheesecake, Mango, and Grape which were equally great.

Well, looks like I made it through the April Adogo meeting with both my presentations on BlazeDS. I put quite a bit of work into the presentations, so thanks to all of those who attended the presentation. We’ve updated the Meetings page with links to the recordings if anyone is interested. I have to apologize for the quality of the sound, however; I think I accidentally messed up the white noise calibration. In any case, thanks to the Adogo for having me as always.